FRIDAY WRAP: ESG Ratings will be a B one day, your delivery driver is about to smell less gross, beer is still gay, and Comcast still sucks

LIVE from your ESG face tattoo, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at June 16th Lane Studios, featuring all your favorites: Ari the data queen, Jessie the money whisperer, BS-man Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: ESG Ratings will be a B one day, your delivery driver is about to smell less gross, beer is still gay, and Comcast still sucks

Story of the Week (DR):

1. EU proposes to regulate ESG ratings providers

1. The European Union is to regulate agencies providing environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings in an effort to improve standards in an industry that guides trillions of dollars of investments.

2. Investors are increasingly buying stocks and bonds according to how companies rank on various ESG metrics, and the ratings industry is growing fast as demand for investment products packaged and marketed as meeting ESG criteria balloons.

3. "ESG ratings agencies that score companies on governance factors are completely unregulated so it's very difficult to compare ratings by different agencies. We have no clarity on how these ratings are reached and there appears to be conflict of interests," Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Services, told reporters on Tuesday. "We want them (ratings) to be reliable and comparable."

2. Biogen refreshes board as chairman departs, adding a Langer while leaving 2 empty seats AB

1. Biogen has taken a step to “significantly refresh” its board of directors, departing chair Stelios Papadopoulos, Ph.D., said. But the reported romantic relationship between a new nominee and a departing member raises questions about the extent of this reshuffle.

2. In the meantime, current directors Alex Denner, Ph.D., 53, William Jones, 67, and Richard Mulligan, Ph.D., 68, will step down. The changes effectively left two empty seats on Biogen’s board.

3. Susan Langer, 32, has been named a new member of Biogen’s board of directors, the company said Monday.

1. But Langer, daughter of the legendary MIT professor and prolific biotech entrepreneur Bob Langer, is Alex Denner’s romantic partner, Endpoints News reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

2. A Biogen director recommended Langer for this role, the proxy filing shows. And according to Endpoints, that nominator was Denner. Denner has served on Biogen’s board since 2009 and is the chair of the company’s corporate governance committee. He is also chair of Sarissa Capital, which has waged recent proxy battles against Amarin and Alkermes.

3. Langer brings “fresh perspective to the board,” a Biogen spokesperson said in a statement to Fierce Pharma, adding that she “knows the company and the biotech ecosystem very well.”

4. Langer is currently president at Soufflé Therapeutics. She was the founding president of Kojin Therapeutics, which is delving into cell states to treat various diseases, and was the founding chief business officer of Paratus Sciences, which just raised a $100 million series A to borrow from bat biology to solve human diseases.

5. Her past experience also includes board membership at NextRNA Therapeutics, which Bob Langer co-founded, as well as partner stints at Old Silver VC and Guava Partners.

4. BS: chair Stelios Papadopoulos (16%); Alex Denner (10%); William Jones (6%); Richard Mulligan (11%)

1. 43% influence just walked out the door today!

3. A random assortment of famous billionaires in the news

1. George Soros Hands Control to His 37-Year-Old Son: ‘I’m More Political’

1. George Soros, the legendary investor, philanthropist and right-wing target, is handing control of his $25 billion empire to a younger son—Alexander Soros, a self-described center-left thinker who grew up self-conscious of the family’s wealth and wasn’t thought to be a potential successor. 

2. The 37-year-old, who goes by Alex, said in the first interview since his selection that he was broadening his father’s liberal aims—“We think alike,” the elder Soros said—while embracing some different causes. Those include voting and abortion rights, as well as gender equity. He plans to continue using the family’s deep pockets to back left-leaning U.S. politicians.

3. “I’m more political,” Alex said, compared with his father. He recently met with Biden administration officials, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and heads of state, including Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to advocate for issues related to the family foundation.

2. Silvio Berlusconi, billionaire media mogul and former Italian prime minister, dies at 86

1. Silvio Berlusconi was the billionaire Italian media mogul who served as the country’s prime minister multiple times over a period of nine years.

2. The tycoon was the controlling shareholder of Mediaset, Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster.

1. MFE - MediaForEurope N.V., formerly Mediaset Group (Italian: Gruppo Mediaset), is a Dutch-domiciled, Italian-based media and communications company which is majority-owned by Berlusconi family's Fininvest Group.

1. BS: Pier Berlusconi (25%); Marina Berlusconi (21%)

3. Berlusconi was convicted, but later cleared, of charges of having sex with an underage nightclub dancer at one of his wild “bunga bunga” parties.  

4. His promises to sell off his personal assets to avoid conflicts of interest were never fulfilled, which sparked controversy throughout his terms in office.

5. His tenure as Prime Minister was racked with scandalous sex affairs and poor judgement and decision-making

3. JPMorgan settles with Epstein victims just as case becomes class-action lawsuit

1. JPMorgan Chase said it has reached a settlement regarding victims of late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

2. The bank’s litigation with the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Epstein matter remains, however. Its claims against former executive Jes Staley, who was friends with Epstein, are also active.

3. Last week, lawyers for a Epstein victim, called Jane Doe 1 in documents, asked the court to reopen JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s deposition.

4. David Boies, one of the lead lawyers for the victims, said the bank was prepared to pay $290 million to resolve the lawsuit. The parties initially had agreed not to disclose the settlement amount in their joint statement, as it was set to be included in a court filing within the next week.

5. The proposed deal would settle a lawsuit filed last November in Manhattan federal court by an unidentified woman on behalf of victims who were sexually abused by Mr. Epstein over a roughly 15-year period when they were teenage girls and young women, the suit said. The number of victims could potentially rise to more than 100.

4. Disney Finance Chief Clashed With Top Executives Before Stepping Down MM JS

1. Company says Christine McCarthy is taking a family medical leave; move catches associates by surprise

2. Walt Disney CFO Christine McCarthy, who has been a key executive at the entertainment giant for more than two decades, is stepping down.

3. Disney said McCarthy is taking a family medical leave. McCarthy has an ailing husband, who has been in a healthcare facility since the start of the year.

4. The abrupt exit of McCarthy caught some colleagues and associates by surprise. A person familiar with her situation said there have been no dramatic changes in her life recently that would require her to step back.

5. McCarthy has clashed with Disney CEO Robert Iger and other top executives over strategy, including the amount of money Disney spends on content and a recent restructuring that she felt didn’t go far enough to streamline the company, a person familiar with the matter said.

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. New York City Sets New Minimum Wage for Food Delivery Workers

1. “Starting July 12, New York City’s app-based delivery workers must be paid at least $17.96 an hour, not including tips “

2. “The city’s more than 60,000 delivery workers, who courier takeout, groceries and other goods, are paid an average of about $11 an hour, after factoring in tips and expenses, less than New York’s $15 minimum wage, according to an analysis by the city. They also cover their own health insurance, business expenses and additional taxes.”

2. UPS workers will get air conditioned trucks, after years of heat-related hospitalizations and even baking cookies on their dashboards

1. But what about the cookies?

3. Youth environmentalists bring Montana climate case to trial after 12 years, seeking to set precedent JS MM DR

1. 16 Gen-Zers and their lawyers are bringing a case closely watched by law nerds from around the world dealing with a constitutional right to a HEALTHY, LIVEABLE climate as protected by state law in Montana

2. government has a DUTY to protect people from climate change yet the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature passed several measures that favor fossil fuel companies;even increasing the cost to challenge oil, gas, and coal projects in court!

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Anyone who is duped by the words “highly intelligent logistics platform” and “optimize” and “artificial intelligence” JS MM

1. High-tech pizza company that raised nearly $500 million and would cook a pie in transit is reportedly broke

1. Zume: “We have what we call a co-bot environment, so humans and robots working collaboratively,” says Collins. “Robots do everything from dispensing sauce, to spreading sauce, to placing pizzas in the oven.

2. A “highly intelligent logistics platform” to “optimize the number of pizzas we can sell”

3. The problems they hoped to address:

1. The “underserved” pizza market

2. Food truck deserts - food trucks “can’t cook the food on the way” and “have to make a bet” where to park

3. Using “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning” to “preload inventory” into the system (because “everyone orders pepperoni” was too fucking hard)

4. Post money valuation: $1.5bn

2. We spent $40 and used popsicle sticks to make the greatest governance people platform of all time, Board Sabermetrics.  Venture capitalists are fucking idiot assholes

2. Fake Mexican beer is the new American beer because it’s not so trans DR

1. America's new best selling beer is also an LGBTQ champion

2. Bud Light is too trans, Molson is too feminist, so Modelo is the anti-woke beer????

3. BOARD SABERMETRICS RECAP

1. AB InBev, a totalitarian insider-run Belgian company that makes terrible beer, gives a can to a trans person and gets replaced by Coors, a totalitarian US-based company, who disappointed everyone with a commercial run empowering women a few months earlier NOW gets replaced by a US-based fake Mexican beer in Modello by Constellation Brands who… 

1. Is Totalitarian - the Sands brothers (Richard and Robert own 72% of the influence) - puppet CEO

2. Hired an EVP of Diversity… in 2020, the same year Chick-fil-A hired theirs

3. “Recognizing that change often happens when there’s support at the executive level, our CEO, Bill Newlands, has committed to participate in the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion – the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advancing diversity & inclusion within the workplace.”

4. Just come and a say you hate gays or stop drinking beer, this is fucking asinine.

3. Have it both ways-ism legislation

1. North Carolina passes Republican bill blocking ESG investments - Pensions & Investments

1. No, they didn’t.

2. From the passed bill: “In investing and managing assets of the fund pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the State Treasurer shall, in the evaluation of an investment or evaluation or exercise of any right appurtenant to an investment consider only pecuniary factors:

1. Environmental and social considerations are pecuniary factors only if they present economic risks or opportunities that qualified investment professionals would treat as material economic considerations under generally accepted investment theories.  “

2. PRESS RELEASE: WE HATE ESG AND KILL WOKENESS, CONSERVATIVES RULE.

3. REALITY: “if Blackrock says it’s pecuniary and it has an effect on the our returns, then they can do it…”

4. The Taliban AB

1. Southern Baptists Move to Purge Churches With Female Pastors

2. Muslim-Americans find common ground with conservatives over politicization of America's schools - DIDN’T YOU HATE ONE ANOTHER?

3. A California taco restaurant hired a 'priest' to ask staff to confess to workplace 'sins' like arriving late, an ex-employee told the Department of Labor

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. Oligarchy’s complaining: Comcast complains to FCC that listing all of its monthly fees is too hard AB DR MM

2. A Michigan City Just Banned Pride Flags

1. Really…your ego is so fragile that you’re threatened by a flag???

2. The Hamtramck City Council cited religious freedom as the reason for the ban, after numerous residents said during a three-hour public debate that the pride flag clashes with their religious beliefs.

3. Last week, Orange County, California, voted to restrict flags other than the national, state and prisoner of war flags on municipal buildings—effectively banning pride flags at county properties despite voting to recognize pride month Tuesday.

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Bob Iger. It’s always Bob Iger

2. AB: Hillary Clinton? Idk if I would be enraged or vindicated. 

3. MM: Ari - we ran our first R&D version of board sabermetrics using the full executive teams, including the C-suite.  In her first version, she had Christine McCarthy, who just stepped down as CFO of Disney and helped oust Bob Chapek, WAS THE SECOND MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSON AT DISNEY!  WE WIN!

4. JS: Beyonce for singlehandedly impacting an entire country’s inflation

Predictions

1. DR: Rachel Glaser (60), new CFO at Disney

1. Etsy CFO

2. also held roles as Senior Vice President, Operations Finance at The Walt Disney Company, where she spent nearly 20 years in leadership positions in finance, operations, and technology teams.

3. board of The New York Times Company in 2018

2. AB: Maybe this is wishful thinking, FOX NEWS WILL SUE TUCKER CARLSON OUT OF TWITTER

3. MM: Our platform will launch Monday, June 19 2023

JS: Ron DeSantis announces Musk as his VP (Ron DeSantis signed a bill that banned direct-to-consumer car sales in Florida — but left an exception for Tesla)